An Intensive Chinese Language Immersion Experience

In China, the website, Facebook, is blocked by government censorship. While many Americans have the, I think, false assumption that Chinese people are limited in this way and have no connection to the "outside world", in fact Chinese people are, in my experience, very connected to each other, their families and communities through other means. One of those means is the Chinese cell phone app, WeChat. The app is used to send messages, recordings, pictures and videos, as well as update to something like a "wall" or newsfeed. It is used in much the same capacity that Facebook might be in other countries.

However, similar to Facebook, WeChat is sometimes difficult for the older generation to grasp, despite the younger generation's prowess. My host parents, well into their 60s, graying, sweet and masterful cooks, were among the people for whom WeChat proved to be a challenge. One night, my host mom was complaining about how she couldn't get WeChat to work on her phone and I helped her download it, create an account, and find some of her first friends. That night she connected with some people from her hometown whom she hadn't seen for years. She was up for several hours, laughing and talking at length in the living room on video-chats with her old friends. It was such a wonderful moment because, although I couldn't understand the finer points of her conversation, it made me feel proud and happy to have helped her use a Chinese technology to connect with some of her old friends in a way that was distinctly hers.